Brian Nemhauser on Building a Community, Monetizing Content, and Being Your Own Marketer

In today’s Facebook Live episode, we welcomed Spark’s director of product Brian Nemhauser. Not only has Brian been on the ground floor of Spark since its earliest iterations, but he’s a successful sports blogger who knows how to grow a following online and monetize content.

Brian’s blogging side project began with a desire to connect with other Seahawks fans and has since grown into a business that supports a cause near and dear to his heart. Advertising proceeds from Hawk Blogger go to Ben’s Fund, a charity that supports families with special needs children. Check out the video below to get tips from Brian about how he grew an online following from scratch, turned a passion into a side business—and in the process, get a glimpse into how Spark started and where it’s headed.

Key Takeaways
1. Start with a topic you’re passionate about. Keep the focus on building community.
2. Reach out to people on social media who might be interested in your content to organically grow an audience.
3. Use scheduled social media posts sparingly. There’s no replacement or automation for authentic conversation.
4. Sponsored content generally yields the best results monetizing content.

Community Update
In other noteworthy news, filmmaker Jim Cummings released his Sundance-winning short on Vimeo today, kicking off a 48-hour promotional blitz. After a successful film festival season, Jim is taking online distribution of his project into his own hands with the help of Spark. Check out his behind-the-scenes story about the origin of his film and watch the moving short that made his Sundance dreams come true.

Tune in next week for another live broadcast from the Spark team! Got questions or suggestions for a future show? Let us know on Twitter or Facebook!